Florida Is a Tropical Fruit Paradise

This article first appeared in Florida Farm & Family.

Florida’s home gardeners and commercial growers cultivate a wide variety of delicious, nutritious tropical fruits, from avocados to sapodillas. In fact, avocados are the state’s second-largest fruit industry after citrus. Many Florida avocado varieties are larger and smoother than the bumpy-skinned Hass avocado, says Dr. Jonathan Crane, tropical fruit crop specialist at the University of Florida. Well-adapted to the state’s hot, humid climate, “Florida’s cultivars can be termed ‘tropical avocados,’” says Crane, noting Floridians grow more than 50 varieties. Important sources of potassium, folate, vitamin A and fiber, Florida’s tropical avocados have less oil and thus fewer calories than the Hass avocado.

Erickson Farm

The Erickson family grows nearly 20 varieties of avocados on land they’ve farmed for 100 years. Swedish immigrants Alfred and Elfrida Erickson settled near Lake Okeechobee in 1911. Their son, Floyd, earned an agriculture degree in 1933 and soon after began growing winter vegetables with his brother, William. “When the area was transitioning from primarily winter vegetables to sugar cane, our family didn’t have enough acreage for sugar cane to be financially viable,” says Kimberly Erickson, Floyd’s granddaughter. Floyd had become intrigued with mangoes and avocados as a college student, and so he turned to avocado production as a high-value crop and planted mango fields as well. Floyd’s son, Dale, and his wife, Lynn, took over mango production in 1974.

Dale continues to guide Erickson Farm in Canal Point, along with daughters Krista and Kimberly. Krista manages the ordering and shipping and Kimberly handles marketing, IT and research. The Ericksons grow, sell and ship mangoes, curry leaf, paan, sapodilla and lychee in addition to avocados, which extend the farm’s cash flow beyond mango season.

Erickson Farm’s shipping customers are often people who grew up in Florida and miss the varieties grown in the state. “Those customers are extremely excited to be able to get the fruit where they now live,” Erickson says. “As long as we can continue to deliver that delight to our customers with a quality, economically viable crop, we will keep growing them.”

NK Lago Farms

As newlyweds, Nick and Kiley Larsen rented a house with banana trees behind it. “We didn’t do anything to the trees, and they still produced 30 to 40 pounds of fruit every couple of months,” Nick recalls. “That seemed like a business opportunity I wanted to get into.” Larsen worked at the University of Florida’s Everglades Research and Education Center while obtaining a master’s degree in agronomy in 2009, the same year he planted his first 5 acres of bananas. For his Ph.D. in horticulture, Larsen studied a sugar cane byproduct for use as a substrate in growing bananas.

Officially dubbed NK Lago Farms, Larsen now grows several varieties of bananas, including the yellow Cavendish found in every grocery store; Mysore, a finger-length sweet fruit from India; Nam Wah, a small banana from Thailand that Nick says is ideal for banana pudding; and some hybrid varieties from Honduras. He also grows avocados and plantains (a starchy, tougher type of banana that requires cooking). Larsen sells fruit on his website, at farmers markets, from a stand on his farm and to wholesalers. He even sells banana and plantain plants to other growers. “Some years, half of my business is selling plants,” he says.

Larsen says his market niche is variety. “I have a lot of stuff you don’t see on other people’s farms,” he says, “especially the plantains. I know how to grow them, I like growing them and I like eating them.”

See more: Tropical Fruit Boosts Florida’s Economy

Bramble Creek Farms

Although Miami-Dade County is home to nearly all of Florida’s passion fruit production, an Extension agent persuaded Gene Altman to “push the envelope” in trying to grow passion fruit in Hernando County’s colder winter temperatures.

“I just fell in love with the passion fruit,” says Gene, who was looking to add to the blackberries and figs he and his wife, Ann, offer direct to consumers from their Brooksville-based Bramble Creek Farms. An engineer by vocation, Gene built horizontal trellises – modeled after Australian methods – to support the vigorous, fast-growing passion fruit vines. In 2020, their first year of commercial production, the Altmans gathered more than 18,000 pieces of fruit.

As it ripens, passion fruit falls to the ground, then continues ripening until the skin wrinkles or gets dimples. “That’s the time you use it,” Ann says.

Many people are not familiar with passion fruit or its taste; even Gene admits he’d only sampled the fruit once or twice before he grew it. A great source of vitamins A and C, passion fruit can be used in sauces, jellies, juices and desserts. Last year, Ann invited Facebook followers to share recipes, which ranged from mimosas to vinaigrettes.

As they learn more about growing passion fruit, the Altmans apply the same philosophies recognized by the Florida Farm Bureau with its CARES Award. “We use best management practices to utilize the most efficient and conservative approaches to farming,” Ann says. “We care deeply about the land and want to do what is best while providing a great product for our customers.”